@McDonalds ‘McResources’ tells employees to sign up for SNAP and Medicaid

story http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/208222/mcdonalds-helps-employees-with-mcresources-hotline-that-tells-them-to-sign-up-for-snap-and-medicaid/

"we, as a country, are essentially subsidizing the wages of these workers for companies that don't feel like paying their employees enough to live on, perhaps that is not as effective as hearing it directly from the horse's mouth.

In every McDonald's, there are posters advertising a "McResources" hotline for employees having a hard time getting along financially. Guess what happens when an employee calls one of those "McResources" lines? Well, they get an operator, on the other end, explaining to them how to sign up for SNAP and Medicaid. Here is a a call from ten-year McDonald's employee Nancy Salgado (who makes $8.25 an hour and has never received a raise), recorded by the folks at Low Pay is Not OK, in which she asks an operator about what to do about not being able to afford food or healthcare, and is instructed to sign up for social safety net programs."blo

Low-wage Workers Are More Likely To Be Victims Of Wage Theft

story here http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/surprise-low-wage-workers-are-more-li

"A recent survey of New York City fast-food workers found that 84 percent of them had experienced wage theft — the withholding of pay for work-related time for which they should be compensated. For example, workers may have to stay late after their shift ends or show up before it starts to count a register but their employers do not pay them for that time. Or bosses may take money out of workers' paychecks for work-related expenses or fees that were not disclosed to the worker at hiring. Or workers may not get access to promised breaks or may be required to work overtime without compensation. These abuses are particularly pernicious because low-wage workers typically do not have the time or resources to challenge their bosses legally."

@BarneysNY messed up: 19-Year-Old Detained For ‘Shopping While Black’ At Barneys

story http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/23/2826451/barneys-shopping-black/

Barneys, the high-end fashion mecca in one of Manhattan's most expensive retail blocks, is facing lots of questions and a civil lawsuit after the store's loss prevention officers detained 19-year-old Trayon Christian, a black student at the NYC College of Technology. His crime? Shopping while black.

The Queens native had walked into the luxury shop last April in search of a new Salvatore Ferragamo belt retailing for $350. He had been setting aside part of his paychecks from his part time job for months, and finally had enough to make the purchase. But as he exited the store with the belt (and his receipt) in tow, undercover officers stopped Christian and began questioning his purchase, according to a report in the New York Post:

As soon as he exited the luxury department store, undercover officers grabbed Christian and asked "how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt," according to the suit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

A Barneys clerk, who had asked Christian for identification when he bought the belt, called police claiming the purchase was a fraud, the suit says.

The responding officers hauled Christian to a local police station for more questioning. Even after producing his receipt, the debit card he used to make the purchase, and his identification, officers continued to insist that the purchase with fraudulent. Only after an officer called Chase bank, which verified that Christian was the account holder for the card in question, did the police let him go.

The incident is the subject of a lawsuit brought by Christian against Barneys and the NYPD, which has faced repeated charges of racial profiling of young black men in particular. The department's controversial stop and frisk policy has also been in the news for both its reliance on racial profiling and its failure to actually curb any crime.

Barneys has thus far refused to offer an apology to Christian, though it did take the time to defend itself from the allegations. "Barneys New York typically does not comment on pending litigation. In this instance, we feel compelled to note that after carefully reviewing the incident of last April, it is clear that no employee of Barneys New York was involved in the pursuit of any action with the individual other than the sale. Barneys New York has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination and we stand by our long history in support of all human rights," they said in a statement to the local ABC affiliate.

Monsanto Spends Millions to Kill GMO Labeling Initiative in WA State

story http://my.firedoglake.com/cranestation/2013/10/23/over-easy-monsanto-spends-millions-to-kill-gmo-labeling-initiative-i-522-in-wa-state/

"

Voters are already mailing in ballots for food labeling initiative I-522 in Washington State, where large food corporations have set a state record, contributing 17.1 million dollars, to defeat the truth-in-labeling initiative. A 'Yes' vote supports labeling of foods to reflect that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are in food where genetic enginnering was utitized. The ballot summary states:

This measure would require foods produced entirely or partly with genetic engineering, as defined, to be labeled as genetically engineered when offered for retail sale in Washington, beginning in July 2015. The labeling requirement would apply generally to raw agricultural commodities, processed foods, and seeds and seed stock, with some exceptions, but would not require that specific genetically-engineered ingredients be identified. The measure would authorize state enforcement and civil penalties, and allow private enforcement actions.

The ballot is significant in Washington State because, as it explains: "Agriculture is Washington's number one employer and wheat is Washington's number two export crop, second only to goods and services produced by the Boeing company, and ahead of Microsoft, which ranks third. Preserving the identity, quality, and reliability of Washington's agricultural products is of prime importance to our state's fiscal health."

Shameless and arrogant agribusiness behemoth Monsanto leads the way in donations to defeat the initiative (ie. election buying), not even bothering, in an oddly honest way, to hide its 4.8 million dollar donation to an effort that would in essence allow dishonesty in food labeling.

Other large companies in the Big Food Lobby like General Mills, Inc. ($598,819), PepsiCo, Inc.($1,620,899), Kellogg Company ($221,852), Nestlé USA, Inc. ($1,052,743) and ConAgra Foods ($285,281), aka Big Junk Foods, slithered around in secret meetings, laundering money and hiding donor disclosure until Washington's Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit against 'junk food lobby' Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), forcing them to disclose their identities and donation amounts. The disclosure was published on October 18.

Final ballots will be cast in Washington on November 5. Ballot initiative I-522 is similar to California's Proposition 37, which was narrowly rejected by voters last year. Given the fierce battle that is unfolding in Washington and the amount of money that large companies are pumping into what amounts to a propaganda campaign that one might associate with a different era, some Washington voters fear that the truth-in-labeling initiative in Washington will fail as well.

The bottom line is, Monsanto and its supporters who supply our food do not want to be honest with the consumer, nor do they want the consumer to make informed decisions, for fear that informed decisions will decrease profit. Without even getting into discussions about why, for example, Monsanto's scientists failed to foresee that weeds would become resistant to their best-selling miracle weed-killer RoundUp, we can surely agree that from a philosophical view, we have a basic right to know whether or not the food we put into our mouths has been produced through a process of genetic modification.

The ballot initiative does not ask, "Do you think Monsanto has done a pretty good job of convincing you that it is not Pure Evil this time around, or do you still want to shower and check for your wallet every time you see their name?"

The initiative states, in pertinent part:

(4) Consumers have the right to know whether the foods they purchase were produced with genetic engineering. The genetic engineering of plants and animals is an imprecise process and often causes unintended consequences. Mixing plant, animal, bacterial, and viral genes in combinations that cannot occur in nature produces results that are not always predictable or controllable, and can lead to adverse health or environmental consequences.

We used to think tobacco was safe and non-addictive but it is neither. Antibiotics were overused and misused for every possible ailment, but now we have MRSA and other horrible antibiotic-resistant illnesses, including the most recent Salmonella outbreak. We never knew that combined hormone therapy after menopause increases the risk for breast cancer, but it does, and now informed of such and given choice, not every post-menopausal woman reaches for the estrogen bottle. None of these analogous historical examples that involved the 'yet unknown' scenarios had to do with an issue so large as our food supply, but we should have learned by now, at any rate, at the very least to err on the side of caution."

rest of story http://my.firedoglake.com/cranestation/2013/10/23/over-easy-monsanto-spends-millions-to-kill-gmo-labeling-initiative-i-522-in-wa-state/

Obamacare Mandate Deadline to Be Delayed By Six Weeks

story http://crooksandliars.com/breaking-news/breaking-news-obamacare-be-delayed-s

$15 living wage could be coming to one Washington city, despite Koch-funded opposition

story here http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/23/1249986/--15-living-wage-could-be-coming-to-one-Washington-city-despite-Koch-funded-opposition#

Koch Brother Wages 12-Year Fight Over Wind Farm - hates 'visual pollution"

story here http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/us/koch-brother-wages-12-year-fight-over-wind-farm.html?hpw&_r=1&

"OSTERVILLE, Mass. — If the vast wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound is ever built, William I. Koch will have a spectacular view of it.

Of course, that is the last thing he wants. Mr. Koch, a billionaire industrialist who made his fortune in fossil fuels and whose better-known brothers underwrite conservative political causes, has been fighting the wind farm, called Cape Wind, for more than a decade, donating about $5 million and leading an adversarial group against it. He believes that Cape Wind's 130 industrial turbines would not only create what he calls "visual pollution" but also increase the cost of electricity for everyone.

Now, as if placing a bet on the outcome of the battle, Mr. Koch, 73, who has owned an exclusive summer compound here for years, has acquired an even grander one — Rachel Mellon's 26-acre waterfront estate in the gated community of Oyster Harbors, for $19.5 million. He has also bought the nearby 12-plus-acre Dupont estate. All of this adds up to a prime perch over Nantucket Sound.

"I love the area," Mr. Koch said in an e-mail. "The ability to acquire a special property where I can create a family compound for my children and extended family was and is very meaningful to me." (His current home, in the same gated community, is on the market for $15 million.)

At one time, Cape Wind — which would produce 75 percent of the power for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket — was expected to be the first offshore wind farm in the country, and supporters hoped it would serve as a catalyst for other offshore wind projects like those that ring Europe. But after more than a dozen years, the $2.6 billion proposal remains on the drawing board, thanks in large part to the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, of which Mr. Koch is chairman.

Still, Jim Gordon, Cape Wind's developer, who has spent $70 million of his own money on the project since 2001, vows that it will go forward. He said that he would qualify for certain federal tax credits by the end of the year and that the necessary financing would be in place, but he declined to disclose details, saying he did not want to give Mr. Koch a "road map" of his plans.

"This is a very sophisticated adversary," Mr. Gordon said. "Koch has already spent a decade trying to push us off the path toward a better energy future."

The two men have circled each other for a decade in an escalating test of wills. Mr. Gordon has tried unsuccessfully to enlist Mr. Koch, who once financed green energy plants, in his cause; Mr. Koch has successfully delayed Cape Wind for years by tying it up in court. A few lawsuits, some of them backed by the Nantucket Sound alliance, remain to be settled.

Audra Parker, chief executive of the alliance, is skeptical that Mr. Gordon can move ahead. His plans, she said, are "built on a house of cards."

Mr. Gordon, for his part, contends that Mr. Koch "lives in a billionaire bubble" and that his efforts to block Cape Wind are self-defeating because climate change is already assaulting Cape Cod.

"Their beach is eroding, houses are falling into the sea, the ocean is getting warmer, lobsters are migrating away," Mr. Gordon said in an interview in his Boston office. "It's just sad that somebody who has the means to spend millions of dollars can hold something up that's going to produce a lot of benefits for Massachusetts and this region."

Mr. Koch is not the only opponent of Cape Wind. The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, whose Hyannis family compound also looked out on Nantucket Sound, opposed the project too, as do many fishermen and business owners on the Cape who worry it will hurt their livelihoods. Hundreds of people have made donations to the alliance; Mr. Koch's $5 million in contributions account for only part of the $30 million raised.

But he is one of the few wealthy homeowners here who has taken a public role in the fight. And his ties to the fossil-fuel industry, and the fact that he is a Koch brother, make him a convenient target for pro-wind supporters.

Major environmental groups support the wind farm as a necessary step toward reducing carbon emissions, and they are furious with Mr. Koch. But when he was warned last year that environmentalists were going to start attacking him and try to stop his other projects, he said he welcomed the fight.

"The environmentalists are already after me," he told CommonWealth magazine in April. "I've had the Turkish government after me, I've had the I.R.S. after me and I've had a $50-billion-a-year corporation after me. I've had the Turkish mafia after me, so bring it on, baby."

Combative, flamboyant and litigious, Mr. Koch does not shy away from public scrapes. He has been involved in dozens of lawsuits over the years, including a tangled case against his own brothers that went on for two decades and that Forbes called "perhaps the nastiest family feud in American business history."

rest at  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/us/koch-brother-wages-12-year-fight-over-wind-farm.html?hpw&_r=1&

Ted Cruz's dad thinks son is 'king' 'anointed' to transfer wealth from the 'wicked' to the 'righteous'

story http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/rafael-cruz-father-ted-cruz-wants-great-transfer-wealth-hands-evangelicals-himself

"The father of right wing Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the most visible leader of the now-ended government shutdown, is seen in recently uncovered videos calling for America to be ruled by "kings" who will take money from anyone who is not an evangelical Christian and deliver it into the hands of fundamentalist preachers and their acolytes.

Megachurch preacher Larry Huch suggested that Rafael Cruz's own son, Ted, is one of those "kings." And in fact, at a ceremony this past July Ted Cruz was "anointed" by a group of fundamentalist preachers in a special blessing ceremony.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, then-Senator Barack Obama was accused by conservatives of advocating "redistribution of wealth" from the wealthy to the needy. But in his speech given last year, Rafael Cruz calls for "a great transfer of wealth."

The difference is, in Cruz's scheme, the transfer will occur through a war against "the wicked" led by Christian preachers who will take the wealth from nonbelievers.

"The wealth of the wicked is stored for the righteous," said the elder Cruz at an Irving, Texas megachurch in August of 2012. "And it is through the kings, anointed to take dominion, that that transfer of wealth is going to occur."

"I know that's why God got Rafael's son elected - Ted Cruz, the next Senator," said Huch, pastor of the New Beginnings megachurch, introducing Rafael Cruz's speech.

"Kings who are anointed for a totally different reason than priests," Rafael Cruz went on to say. "Kings who are anointed to take dominion. Kings who are anointed to go to war, win the war, and bring the spoils of war to the priests.""

Florida's Lax Oversight Enables Systemic Abuse At Private Youth Prisons

story here http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/prisoners-of-profit-2

"Youth Services International confronted a potentially expensive situation. It was early 2004, only three months into the private prison company's $9.5 million contract to run Thompson Academy, a juvenile prison in Florida, and already the facility had become a scene of documented violence and neglect.

The Huffington Post uploaded and annotated the documents — including court transcripts, police reports, audits and inspection records — uncovered during this investigation.

Hover over the highlighted passages to see the source document behind each fact.

Browse the documents behind this report »

One guard had fractured an inmate's elbow after the boy refused instructions to throw away a cup, according to incident reports. Another guard had slammed a boy's head into the floor after an argument. The prison was infested with ants and cockroaches, toilets were frequently clogged and children reported finding bugs in their meager portions of food.

"From day one, it was hell," said Jerry Blanton, a former monitor with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, who was then tasked with inspecting Thompson Academy.

Conditions appeared so foul and perilous that he told his supervisors that he "emphatically recommended that the facility be closed," according to a memo about the discussions.

What happened next speaks to how Youth Services International has managed to forge a lucrative business running private juvenile prisons in Florida and 15 other states even amid mounting evidence of abuse. The company used connections with state officials to complain that Blanton was intimidating staff. Less than a week later, the state removed him as monitor of the facility. Two months after that, he was fired.

Thompson remained open, and Youth Services International retained its contract to operate it. In the nine years since, the company has won an additional eight contracts in Florida, bringing 4,100 more youths through its facilities, according to state records. All the while, complaints of abuse and neglect have remained constant.

Florida leads the nation in placing state prisons in the hands of private, profit-making companies. In recent years, the state has privatized the entirety of its $183 million juvenile commitment system — the nation's third-largest, trailing only California and Texas. Florida not only relies on private contractors to self-report escapes and incidents of violence and abuse, but the state's Department of Juvenile Justice routinely awards contracts to private prison operators without scrutinizing their records, a Huffington Post investigation has found."

Cop Buys Groceries For Desperate Shoplifting Mom

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21012009392020/cop-helps-admitted-shoplifter-with-groceries/

SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A South Florida police officer went above and beyond the call of duty when she lent a helping hand to a struggling single mother she stopped for shoplifting.

Jessica Robles admitted she made a decision to shoplift groceries out of desperation. She said she found herself in a situation where she looked at her the children, 12-year-old Anais and two younger boys, and realized she had no money left for food.

"Not fun, to see my brother in the dirt hungry, asking for food, and we have to tell him, 'There is nothing here,'" said Anais, fighting back tears as she recalled how she had to tell her little brothers, ages 2 and 6, that they were out of food.

Robles said she went to a Publix on 207th Street and South Dixie Highway at the end of September. According to police, she walked out pushing a cart filled with $300 worth of groceries for which she did not pay.

Miami-Dade Police Officer Vicki Thomas was the law enforcer who stopped Robles. "I asked her, 'Why would you do that? What would make you do that?' And she said, 'My children are hungry,'" said Thomas.

Instead of taking Robles into custody, Thomas ran her criminal history and found nothing major. The officer saw Robles was not a habitual shoplifter, so she charged her with a misdemeanor and a notice to appear in court.

Thomas also took an extra step to help Robles and her children. "I made the decision to buy her some groceries because arresting her wasn't going to solve the problem with her children being hungry," she said.

"She asked, 'Do you even have food at the house?' And I looked at her in her face, and I told her, 'Not at all.'" Robles said.

"So I went in and bought her some groceries," said Thomas, who purchased $100 worth of groceries for Robles.

Thomas said, looking at Robles' sons rummaging through the bags was more than reward enough for her act of generosity. "To see them go through the bags when we brought them in, it was like Christmas," she said. "That $100 to me was worth it."

Robles said her boyfriend's loss of employment led to her money woes. He was receiving federal assistance for food, and due to a paperwork issue, the aid stopped.

Robles said she is currently going to a local food bank and is desperately looking for work. She expressed her gratitude to her guardian angel in uniform. "All I wanted to tell her is thank you from the bottom of my heart," she said.

Tears streamed down Anais' face as she echoed her mother's comments. "Thank you so very much for doing it for us, and we're very thankful," she said.

Thomas did have one favor to ask of Robles. "The only thing I asked of her is, when she gets on her feet, that she help someone else out," she said, "and she said she would."

(Copyright 2013 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Oregon Tea Party founder hasn’t paid his mortgage in three years

story here http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/18/1248688/-Oregon-Tea-Party-founder-hasn-t-paid-his-mortgage-in-three-years?detail=email

Oil companies burning $100 million worth natural gas a month, 29% of production, cheaper than building pipelines

story http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/business/energy-environment/oil-companies-are-sued-over-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota.html?_r=0

HOUSTON — In the sharpest challenge yet to the surge in flaring of natural gas in the Bakken shale oil field, North Dakota mineral owners this week filed 10 class-action lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in lost royalties from some of the nation's largest oil companies.

Roughly 1,500 fires burn above western North Dakota because of the deliberate burning of natural gas by companies rushing to drill for oil without having sufficient pipelines to transport their production. With cheap gas bubbling to the top with expensive oil, the companies do not have an economic incentive to build the necessary gas pipelines, so they flare the excess gas instead.

Flaring is environmentally less harmful than releasing raw natural gas into the atmosphere, but the flared gas still spews climate-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The quantities of gas burned are so large that the fires rising above wheat and sunflower fields look like a small city in NASA photographs taken from satellites.

Flared gas has nearly tripled in the last two years in North Dakota, with almost 30 percent of the output in the state burned at wells, producing emissions equivalent to more than two medium-size coal-fired power plants.

The value of flared gas in the state is roughly $100 million a month, leading property owners who lease their lands to the oil companies to believe they are losing money even though they are earning increasing royalties from the fast expansion of oil production in North Dakota. Oil output has risen by 100,000 barrels a day since May alone.

"The lawsuits seek to force operators to comply with state law and pay royalties to mineral owners on the value of flared gas," according to a statement released on Wednesday by one of five law firms that filed the suits, "and by so doing create a compelling economic incentive for producers to reduce and eliminate the wasteful practice of flaring."

Companies being sued include Continental Resources, XTO Energy, SM Energy and Marathon Oil.

North Dakota regulators allow companies to seek exemptions for flaring as they connect their wells to gas-gathering lines. But the suits accuse the companies of violating deadlines and other limitations.

Oil companies and their local trade association say they are working as fast as possible to build pipelines, and they note that the companies now flare about 29 percent of the gas they produce, compared to 36 percent in September 2011.

Companies belonging to the North Dakota Petroleum Council announced the formation this week of a task force to increase efforts to reduce flaring. The group is expected to present a report by the end of the year.

"We recognize that natural gas is an efficient, clean and valuable resource," Terry Kovacevich, the council's chairman and Marathon's regional vice president, said in a statement, "and that's why the industry has invested more than $6 billion in new pipelines, processing plants and other infrastructure to move it from the wellhead to the marketplace."

The Bakken, which produces 850,000 barrels a day, has catapulted North Dakota from a minor oil producer to No. 2 in the nation after Texas. A lack of pipelines has forced producers to transport most of their oil by railroad, but that is not a solution for gas.

The industry is considering and adopting various plans to flare less gas, including using the gas as fuel for their rigs and compressing gas into tanks that can be transported by truck. A longer-range possibility would be the development of projects that could produce diesel out of gas at or near well sites.

In his statement, Mr. Kovacevich acknowledged that developing alternatives to flaring to optimize oil and gas development would "take significant investments of time and money."

rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/business/energy-environment/oil-companies-are-sued-over-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota.html?_r=0

American food stamp benefits to be cut before holidays (nbcnews.com)

story here http://www.nbcnews.com/business/food-stamp-benefits-going-down-holidays-8C11418632?ocid=msnhp&pos=2

Steven Bridges / for NBC News

Cheyenne Phillips, 17, Angela Phillips, 44, and Cassidy Phillips, 14, stand outside their home in Knoxville, Tenn. Phillips used SNAP from from July 2012 to February 2013, and will be applying for the benefit again on Monday because her temp job ended on Friday.

Millions of American families could face a sparse holiday table when food stamps benefits get reduced in November, and that could be just the start of deeper cuts to the program to feed poor families.

The modern-day food stamp plan, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is scheduled to scale back benefits for all recipients on Nov. 1 because a recession-era boost in benefits is expiring.

The cut comes as lawmakers also are considering billions of dollars of reductions to the overall SNAP program, which has grown substantially in recent years amid the weak economy and high unemployment.

The program is now serving more than 23 million households, or nearly 48 million people, according to the most recent government data through June. The USDA says the average monthly benefit is about $275 per household.

The exact reduction depends on the recipients' situation, but a family of four with no other changes in circumstances will receive $36 less per month, according to the USDA. At today's average prices, that translates to four fewer whole chickens each month.

Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that can be a major hit for a family that is already struggling with such low wages that they can't afford food on their own.

"For those of us who spend $1.70 a day on a latte this doesn't seem like a big change, but it does kind of really highlight that millions of families are living on an extremely modest food budget," she said.

Others are less worried about the immediate cuts. Parke Wilde, associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, said that in real dollars, the cuts brings the program's aid levels back in line with where they were in the mid-2000s, before benefits were boosted as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

"That's neither great nor terrible," Wilde said.

He said the bigger issue is the debate in Congress over whether, and how much, the SNAP program could be cut in years to come. The House of Representatives passed a bill in mid-September that would eliminate about $39 billion from the SNAP budget over 10 years, while the Senate has approved a bill that makes much smaller cuts to the program.

The final decision could result in some recipients getting dropped from the program completely even as many are still recovering from the effect of the deep recession, he said.

"We have a very spare cash-based safety net and we rely a lot on food stamps to give people the resources they need to avoid hunger," Wilde said.

The SNAP program has become a last resort for people like Angela Phillips, 44, who never thought that she would have to accept food stamps.

Steven Bridges / for NBC News

Angela Phillips

Phillips, who is divorced with three kids, worked for years as a paralegal and executive assistant, at one point making about $45,000 a year. Then the economy turned, and she suffered a string of job losses along with some health issues related to a shoulder injury from her time serving in the Army years ago.

Phillips, who lives in Knoxville, Tenn., said she juggled things as best she could for a long time, eating little while her kids were with their dad so she could feed them well when they were staying with her. Still, she said she struggled to explain why she couldn't always give them pricier, healthy foods like fresh fruit.

She ended up applying for SNAP benefits in July of 2012, while working part-time.

"It was a huge benefit for me to be able to know that I could feed my family," she said.

Phillips is currently working as a temporary administrative assistant for a national lab, but the employment is erratic and she says she makes about $17,000 a year. She's also a full-time student.

She recently had a long period of steady employment and was able to go off food stamps. That temporary position ended Friday and she doesn't know when she'll get another stable position. That means she'll be applying for food stamps again on Monday.

Phillips said she collected about $600 a month previously, and she doesn't yet know what her benefit will be this time, with the new reductions.

"I could make it work for a bit smaller benefit," she said. "If it was a lot different, then I would have a difficult time."

State agencies that administer the food stamp benefit say they are trying to get the word out about the benefit reduction.

Alexis Lambert, communications director for the Florida department of children and families, said they have hung flyers, added a notice to the website and put an announcement on their call center hold message.

In Kansas, Theresa Freed, director of communications for the state department for children and families, said the state agency has provided recipients with an estimate of what kind of reduction they will see. It also is notifying community partners that they could see an increase in demand for their services.

Some food banks also are preparing for the change. Eric Cooper, chief executive of the San Antonio Food Bank in Texas, said he estimates that a typical SNAP benefit is enough for a family to buy food for two-and-a-half to three weeks. With the reduction, he expects SNAP benefits to typically last for two to two-and-a-half weeks.

"It's going to place a lot more demand on us for kind of 'food for today' type strategies," he said. "Our emergency food and the need for more assistance is going to be greater."

IBM's Watson is better at diagnosing cancer than human doctors (Wired UK)

story here http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/11/ibm-watson-medical-doctor

Illinois Supreme Court ruled 6 to 1 today that the state's click-through nexus law, or "Amazon tax," is unconstitutional.

story http://taxfoundation.org/blog/illinois-supreme-court-strikes-down-amazon-tax-0

"The Illinois Supreme Court ruled 6 to 1 today (PDF) that the state's click-through nexus law, or "Amazon tax," is unconstitutional. The law requires an out-of-state retailer to collect sales tax on in-state sales if the retailer has paid referral contracts with in-state affiliates.

Targeted at Amazon (hence then nickname), the law is broad enough that it could be read to sweep all paid-per-click advertising activity. So if you pay for advertising by the view, you have no obligation, but if you pay for advertising by the sale (performance marketing), you do.

Most of the legal challenges to these laws have focused on whether the state power exceeds constitutional limits under the Commerce Clause, but the Illinois Supreme Court focused on this disparity between Internet advertisers and traditional advertisers. Ultimately, the court concluded that because the law requires Internet-based performance marketers to collect tax, but does not require that of traditional performance marketers, it is a discriminatory tax on Internet-based commerce in violation of the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act:

In short, under the Act, performance marketing over the Internet provides the basis for imposing a use tax collection obligation on an out-of-state retailer when a threshold of $10,000 in sales through the clickable link is reached. However, national, or international, performance marketing by an out-of-state retailer which appears in print or on over-the-air broadcasting in Illinois, and which reaches the same dollar threshold, will not trigger an Illinois use tax collection obligation. The relevant provisions of the Act therefore impose a discriminatory tax on electronic commerce within the meaning of the ITFA.

Justice Lloyd Karmeier dissented, criticizing the majority for not addressing the Commerce Clause issue.

The case is Performance Marketing Association, Inc. v. Hamer, 2013 IL 114496.

We recently filed a brief supporting an appeal of a similar to New York law.The

 

Regards,

Joseph Henchman
Vice President, Legal & State Projects
Tax Foundation

 

Since 1937, the Tax Foundation has been a constant advocate for smarter tax policy. We are trusted as the leading voice changing the debate on tax policy through educating taxpayers, expert analysis, coalition building, engaging lawmakers, and more. We are located in Washington, D.C., and are an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization."